


Reflections

by afteriwake



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-21
Updated: 2014-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-26 01:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1668947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lestrade takes the time one morning to reflect on the twists and turns that led him to this point in his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reflections

**Author's Note:**

> And yet another **land_deduction** bingo card fill! I decided not to use my other story as my "Lestrade" fill so this is the one I'm doing in its place. Also, this is another **sherlockmas** prompt answer ("Any; this is not where I saw myself ten years ago").

It was not often Greg Lestrade took time to reflect on his life. He'd been through a lot, had more downs than ups it seemed, and reflecting on his life usually made him dour and depressed. But over the course of the last year or so things had definitely taken a step in the right direction. For once he could honestly say he was content, even happy. And a lot of it had to do with the woman asleep beside him. She was still sleeping, curled up on her side with her back pressed against his chest. How he had ended up with her, after everything that had gone on and everything they had been through both separately and together, made him wonder what he had done to get so lucky.

As he lay awake in bed he replayed in his mind just how his life had gotten to this point. He'd married his first wife right out of university, and he'd thought they would be happy for the rest of their lives. But things had happened and they had drifted apart. When Sherlock had brought up his wife's affair at the Christmas party he had been irritated with his consultant but it had forced him to take a good hard look at what he had been putting up with and what he wanted instead. And he decided at that point he needed to end his marriage rather than have both of them be miserable. Well, the three of them, he supposed. Sophie wasn't quite in university at that point. She had been the only good thing to come out of his marriage, at any rate. He loved his daughter very much, and while she had been upset about the divorce she had been relieved after a time. When her mother made no sign she really wanted to continue to parent her she settled into a new life with her father, and so far it had worked out fairly well. Sophie had thrived her last two years in school, and he had never been prouder.

He'd been so focused on his daughter and his job, especially the mess with Sherlock's supposed suicide and his return, that he'd let other parts of his life slide. Every couple of months Sally would try and fix him up with a friend or someone she thought might be a good fit, but they were all one-off dinners and not much else. He'd finally resorted to begging her to stop, and she asked him if he'd do one more. If it didn't work then she'd stop completely. He had sighed and agreed. He had been very surprised when he saw Molly enter the restaurant. It had been well over a year since Sherlock had returned, and he had heard about the dissolution of her relationship with the chap she'd brought to John and Mary's wedding. It had been quite serious, from what he'd seen and heard. Marriage proposal serious, if he remembered correctly. So to see her coming in and looking for him had been a shock.

He had stood up and pulled out her chair for her, giving her a warm grin, and the minute they sat down they began to talk. There hadn't been any awkwardness at all; the conversation had been easy and gone on for some time, long after they'd finished their food and a few glasses of wine. In fact, they were the last ones to leave the restaurant. When he escorted her home and asked if she'd like to do it again later in the week she blurted out how they should do it the next evening and he'd chuckled and agreed. That had been the start of the best relationship he'd ever been in.

They had taken their time. It was one thing for him to rush into a relationship when he was young, but in his head he knew if he rushed into this one, if he didn't make sure that they were on the same page with things, that they would be over and he'd be miserable. For a very long time, even before his divorce, he'd felt the only bright spot in his life had been Sophie. His wife had managed to suck the joy out of his life, and he'd started to look at his marriage as an endurance test, something he would put up with until Sophie was out of university so he could finally end things. He hadn't expected anything to go the way it had, but his relationship with Molly pleased him. Molly made him feel better, made him smile more, made him happy. It had been a long time since he had really been happy.

And everyone had noticed. His friends had been glad for them, even Sherlock. That had been the reaction that had surprised him the most; Sherlock made no attempts to deduce anything about his relationship with Molly or sabotage it in any way. All Sherlock had done was lay down a simple but very effective threat if he ever thought of hurting Molly. That had been the one threat that had actually scared him, but he had reassured Sherlock that he had no intention of ever hurting Molly. Sherlock had looked at him for a very long while and then nodded, saying he was fairly sure that would been the case, but he wanted to be sure. Apparently Molly was just as much a friend to him as John had been, and Sherlock wanted the best for her. He could very much appreciate that. 

They had been together for just over a year when he started thinking about proposing to her. She'd been through one proposal and nothing had come of it, and he wanted to make sure this time was different. If she said yes he'd ensure they actually got married, that it wouldn't blow up in their faces, leaving them with a failed relationship and a ruined friendship. He had been through it all before himself, and with as horribly as it had turned out the fact he was even considering that type of commitment again had surprised him slightly. Not that he'd believed he and Molly would stay together without getting married forever; Molly was a bit of an old-fashioned girl, and he knew she wanted to try and get married one day. They had talked about their failed relationships so he knew that she still wanted it very much.

He'd tried to do it the night before, but it had been one mess after another. Reservations had been lost, interruptions had happened, and at the end of a long and exhausting evening he'd decided it was simply best if he just wait until there was a better time. The ring was in the nightstand on his side of the bed, safely hidden until the perfect time for him to ask. Last night he'd had the fleeting thought that there might never be a perfect time, that the ring would sit there and never be slipped onto her finger, that eventually things would end and he'd be alone again. As that thought revisited he tightened his hold on her slightly.

“You don't have to keep me so close,” she murmured sleepily. He grinned slightly as he realized she was awake and he loosened his grip. She moved away slightly and turned so she was facing him, a smile on her face. “Good morning, Greg.”

“Morning,” he said, his grin growing wider. He was lucky, far luckier than he ever had any right to expect. He had the love of one of the best women he knew, a woman who was happy to be there with him through anything, who didn't mind that he had years of hurt and emotional baggage and a daughter who was far older than he'd like to remember. She loved him exactly as he was, and he was grateful for that.

“You don't normally keep that tight a hold on me when I'm sleeping,” she said, punctuating it with a slight yawn. “Is something wrong?”

“I was just thinking about what might happen if you leave,” he said.

“I'm not going to leave, Greg. I promise.” She leaned in and kissed him softly for a moment. He kissed her back, moving an arm to pull her closer, and he was rewarded with her grinning under his lips. She pulled away a few minutes later. “What brought that on anyway?” she asked quietly.

“Just thinking about how my life is vastly different than I had thought it would be ten years ago. I'm happy.”

“Well, I feel the same way. And I'm happy, too.” She looked up at him. “I didn't think I'd get a chance to be happy, considering.”

“If anyone should be happy it's you,” he said.

“Well, the same applies to you.” She placed her hands on his chest. “I'm just very glad we're happy with each other. I like what we have.”

“I like it too,” he said. He was quiet for a moment. Suddenly he needed to know if she'd spend the rest of her life with him. Maybe this wasn't the way he'd planned it, and maybe it wasn't absolutely perfect, but now seemed like a good time to propose. He pulled away from her and sat up. “If I were to ask you something, would you promise to really consider it?”

“Of course,” she said with a slight nod, sitting up as well. “What do you want me to consider, Greg?”

“Spending the rest of your life with me,” he said quietly. “I had it all planned yesterday. I was going to do it properly, but everything went to hell and I decided I'd wait for the perfect time to try again. But I do love you, Molly, and I want to know if you'll marry me. Nothing would make me happier, but I won't push.”

“You really want to marry me?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“I do,” he said as he nodded slightly.

She grinned what was quite possibly the widest smile he had ever seen cross her face and then launched herself at him, hugging him tightly. “Of course I will!”

He embraced her back, shutting his eyes and just enjoying this. She had said yes. She had decided she wanted to spend however long they had left on this earth with him. She had done it without hesitation and she'd seemed ecstatic about it. He really was the luckiest man in the world. After a few minutes he pulled away and shifted slightly to open his nightstand. “I do actually have a ring. I probably should have given that to you first.”

“It's all right,” she said. He pulled the box out from the nightstand and then turned back to her, opening it up. Her eyes went wide and she put her hands to her mouth. “Oh, my. That's absolutely lovely,” she said as she looked down at the ring.

“I had help picking it out. Sophie offered her advice when she came home on break. She's the only one who knew I wanted to ask.”

“I'll have to give her a big thank you when I see her,” she said, lowering her hands. He took her left one on his and then slipped the ring onto her finger. It was a perfect fit, and he was quite happy for that. “Really, it's stunning.”

“Well, I thought you deserved something extravagant,” he said. “You're really pleased with it?”

“I am. Very much.” She moved closer and then leaned in and kissed him for a moment before she nudged him onto his back. Then she pulled away from him and grinned. “I can show you just how much, if you'd like.”

“I think that would make for a very enjoyable morning,” he said with a grin of his own before she leaned in to kiss him again. Really, this had all gone better than he could have possibly hoped. Now his future seemed much brighter, and while this wasn't where he had expected his life to go he was glad it was this way regardless.


End file.
